The Reporter Who Knew Too Much

by Mark Shaw

  Sinclaire continued to describe the scene:

  Rigor mortis had set in on one hand, the right hand and it had drawn up the covers a little bit. And there was lipstick on the [left] sleeve of the Bolero jacket…and the light was on and she was sitting up.

  I went back in the dressing room, picked up the intercom, and rang for James [the butler]. I said, “James, I am unable to wake Miss Kilgallen. Could you please come up?” He RAN up the stairs. I could hear him. He came up the front stairs and he ran like he was very excited and of course the door was locked. But I had come in from the back door. I don’t think they expected me, no one knew I was coming. And this was before 9:30 in the morning, nine, five after nine.86

  So I opened the door to the bedroom and James came in, and at that time I noticed a sheet of paper laying on the floor that had been pushed under the door. And James came in and he was very flustered. He wasn’t himself at all.87

  Sinclaire’s statement regarding Kilgallen wearing a blue robe with her hair, makeup, and false eyelashes in place with the covers pulled up matched the descriptions in the NYC medical examiner’s documents, providing credibility for his account. He added, “And I was very upset so I turned to [James] and I said, ‘I’m going home. You can reach me there if you want to’ and I left the building.” Sinclaire then added, “When I got downstairs and went out the front door, there was a police car sitting in front of the house…There were two officers in it. Sitting right dead in front of the house. They didn’t pay any attention to me when I came out…. I find it very strange that they were sitting there dead in front of the house and Dorothy was dead upstairs. Yes, I find it very strange.”

  Asked about being interviewed, Sinclaire said, “They called me that night. My then press agent Jan, I can’t remember her last name, anyway, she called me, and asked me to come to Romla Metzler’s house and I did. And the two of them interrogated me basically trying to find out what I knew about Dorothy’s death. And I didn’t have very much to tell them.” He added, “But why would they call me? Metzler was a [Journal-American] fashion writer.”

  Shown a newspaper story reporting the maid having discovered the body, Sinclaire said, “They mixed that all up. But I don’t think I was the first one to find Dorothy. I’ve never thought that.”

  According to tutor and family companion Ibne Hassan, who described Kilgallen as “articulate, very sociable, polite and elegant in dress and manner,” Sinclaire was right. During a November 2015 interview with this author, Dr. Hassan, who enjoyed a stellar career in international politics after earning several PhD’s, said, “Before I went to class at Columbia around 9:00 a.m. that Monday [November 8], I saw all of the servants rushing around the lobby as I was leaving. I asked James what happened. He said, ‘Dorothy died. She may have drank too much.’ Then I left for class.” Hassan also stated he did not recall seeing a police car outside Kilgallen’s townhouse lending credence to his having left for class before Sinclaire arrived.

  Hassan attended Kilgallen’s funeral but Sinclaire did not. He stated, “Her sister Eleanor called me and asked if I would do Dorothy’s hair and makeup because no one knew how to fix her as well as I did…I went to the funeral home, Abby Funeral Home…I didn’t like the funeral director because he was very rude about Dorothy’s death.” Sinclaire added that he went ahead but then the power failed (there was a total blackout of NYC) and he had to return the next night and finish.

  Sinclaire said he did not attend Kilgallen’s funeral because “I did not like the way they were behaving. I didn’t like the way the family was behaving. I didn’t like the way the press was behaving. I didn’t like any of it. I knew more than they did and I didn’t want to be a party to it.”

  Charles Simpson, Kilgallen’s alternate hairdresser, confirmed Sinclaire’s eyewitness account in a videotaped interview by investigative reporter Kathryn Fauble’s associate (TheReporterWhoKnewTooMuch.com). He recalled that Sinclaire, “called me on the phone and told me that he had found her dead. And he said, ‘When I tell you the bed she was found in, and how I found her,’ he said, ‘you’re going to know she was murdered.’ And when he told me, I knew.” Simpson added, “When Marc told me that day and then we got back together and he talked to me and told me where he found her, and how, it was abnormal, the whole thing was abnormal. It was just abnormal. The woman didn’t sleep in that bed much less the room and if she still were sharing that room with Richard, that was Richard’s bed. That’s the one he set fire to. It wasn’t her bed.”

  This referred to an earlier incident on December 15, 1953. A drunken Kollmer had accidently set his bed on fire with a lighted cigarette after falling asleep. His screams alerted Kilgallen. She rushed to save him.88

  One important note regarding Sinclaire’s story is the time factor. His recollection (and for that matter, Hassan’s) that he entered Kilgallen’s townhouse between 9:00 a.m. and 9:30 and then discovered Kilgallen’s body is completely at odds with various newspaper accounts.89

  * * * * *

  Explanations for the death scene irregularities noted by Marc Sinclaire lead to several plausible scenarios. Each must be considered when determining how Kilgallen may have died.

  The first, as noted, involves the potential Kilgallen’s husband Richard was the culprit, either by accidently or intentionally providing his Tuinal to his wife, causing her to be rendered unconscious and ultimately die when the Tuinal mixed with the other drugs and alcohol. Either way, remorseful over his actions when he discovered she was dead, Richard could have decided to make his dead wife presentable so that when her body was discovered she looked as beautiful in death as she had in life. Richard may have then staged the death scene, first stripping Kilgallen of the dress she wore to What’s My Line? and replacing it with nightclothes from her closet. He could have decided to leave on her hairpiece, makeup and false eyelashes so any photographs would capture her beauty.

  Having undressed and dressed her, probably in the bedroom, Richard could have placed her under the covers, and positioned the Honey Badger book on her lap. To make certain her body was preserved, he may have turned on the air conditioner.

  To cover his tracks, and point any investigation toward accidental death or even suicide, Richard could have positioned the empty Seconal drug vial on the night table while forgetting to position her reading glasses there. This may have been an oversight.

  Since it has been determined Kilgallen’s body was discovered several hours before the police were notified, why did Richard wait to inform them? No one knows for sure, but perhaps he began drinking and in his diminished state, was unable to make a decision. Certainly by the time the police, other officials, and friends arrived, he was drunk.

  A second possibility regarding the death scene irregularities deals with another person being responsible for her death who was in the townhouse with Kilgallen when she died. Who such person was and how he ended up there is subject to further study. However, if someone intended to murder Kilgallen, presumably he also needed to make her death look like an accident. This person could have altered the death scene to lead any investigation in the direction of accidental death thereby dismissing any possibility of foul play.

  If there was staging of the death scene, it is important to consider how the killer may have accompanied Kilgallen into the townhouse. This could have happened once she arrived home from the Regency Hotel bar. No one can say for sure since the police investigation, as noted, was no investigation of Kilgallen’s death. Sadly, it was as if the attitudes of Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry and J. Edgar Hoover following JFK’s assassination prevailed. There was no need for any investigation because the evidence was seemingly solid that Oswald alone killed the president. Here, the cause of death was quickly determined to be accidental and no need for an investigation of any kind was ever considered.

  To reconstruct Kilgallen’s movements on the evening of November 7, 1965 and the early morning hours of Novemb
er 8, it is necessary to break down the events in her life. This involves understanding what happened from the time she readied herself for the What’s My Line? appearance to when her body was found. These events are:

  •Preparation for her final What’s My Line? show

  •Appearance on the program

  •The time spent with Bob Bach at P. J. Clarke’s directly after

  the program

  •The stop at the Regency Hotel bar with a companion author

  Lee Israel called the “mystery man”

  •The time between leaving the bar and arriving home

  •Entrance into the townhouse

  •Entrance on the third floor and the Master bedroom

  •Body being discovered

  Regarding Kilgallen’s final program preparation, hairdresser Marc Sinclaire, at Kilgallen’s townhouse to fix her hair, said in his videotaped interview, “She was subdued but no more than usual. She was tired.” Asked why this was true, he replied, “She was out the night before.” Clarifying Kilgallen’s state of mind as she readied herself for the program, Sinclaire explained that Kilgallen was “going home afterwards but obviously she didn’t because she went to the Regency.”

  According to Sinclaire, Kilgallen planned to wear “a long, white silk file evening gown” on the program. He told her she had worn it the week before. When she said it didn’t matter, Sinclaire told her “okay” and helped her into it. He added, “She wanted to wear that dress. [It] was cumbersome because that dress took up the back seat [of the limo]. We always discussed clothes ahead of time, because…if it was an evening dress, I would do [her hairstyle] more elaborate, than I would do…for a shorter cocktail dress.”

  Sinclaire had woven fake flowers collected from a vase in the townhouse entrance hall into Kilgallen’s hair believing the flowers would go well with the dress she had chosen. He called it a “very formal dress…”

  Sinclaire recalled being shocked when he watched What’s My Line? that evening. He immediately noticed Kilgallen had apparently changed her mind before the show. She had, he stated, discarded the silk-file dress90 for a “low-cut, wing-sleeve chiffon dress by designer Anne Fogarty.”

  A stickler for detail, Sinclaire believed the short dress did not mesh well with the flowers in her hair. “She couldn’t take the flowers out because they were woven into the hairpiece,” Sinclaire said adding “Obviously there was something to make her change that dress at the last minute…after I left I think she got a phone call [at home] from somebody, and she agreed to meet whoever it was at the Regency.91 That’s my belief because she wasn’t going to Clarke’s (P.J. Clarke’s).” He continued, “She’d asked me if I wanted to meet her [later] because she did not have anybody she was going to meet with, and she was not dressing for a ‘date date.’” Told that Kilgallen did go to Clarke’s, Sinclaire said, “We’ll maybe but not long. She might have done that and then gone home but it wouldn’t have been an evening like she had.”

  Asked why he didn’t go out with Kilgallen that night, Sinclaire said, “I was tired myself. She had done something every day that week and she had more appointments for me the following week. And I didn’t want to see her anymore. I wanted to go home.”

  Concerning the famous television star’s final WML? performance (www

  .youtube.com/watch?v=6gn6jS1UK78), there was no apparent change from her usual program demeanor. Before the show, director Franklin Heller chatted with Kilgallen in her dressing room. He said she was “quite normally composed in every way.” He added that the two talked about her “travel abroad.” This may have alluded to Charles Simpson’s belief that Kilgallen planned a trip to London.

  Recall that moderator John Charles Daly said, “Dorothy was just full of beans last night. She was in great spirits.” Viewing the taped show confirms this observation. With sharp questioning, she guessed the identity of a woman who sold dynamite. She later teased Bennett Cerf about his comments to the woman who was a football writer. When a man who owned the Hollywood Wax Museum appeared and stumped the panel, Kilgallen quipped, “This is [our] own wax museum.” She referred to the advanced age of her and fellow panelists. Following the program, Kilgallen showed Cerf the Murder One preface. He was impressed.

  By all accounts, Kilgallen’s and Bob Bach’s stop at P. J. Clarke’s was a brief one. The twosome elbowed their way through the packed house before being seated by Frankie Ribando, Table 36’s maître d’. A favorite waiter, Patty Blue, brought Kilgallen a drink, apparently vodka and tonic. At some point, Kilgallen told Bach, as noted, that she had a “late date.”92 The two then left separately sometime past midnight.

  More about the famous journalist’s time spent at the Regency Hotel bar is important but connected directly to a man she met there. Discussing him will follow but for now, it is important to examine the time between when Kilgallen left that bar, when she arrived at the townhouse entrance, when she entered the townhouse, when she finally ended up in the Master bedroom, when she died, and when her body was discovered.

  Kilgallen’s townhouse was located at 45 East 68th Street between Madison Avenue and Central Park. There was a front entrance door. Kerry Kollmar’s tutor and family companion Ibne Hassan told this author no door attendant was present to screen tenants and guests in November 1965. No surveillance cameras were present. None appeared in the United States until 1969.

  Witnesses saw Kilgallen at the Regency Hotel, located six blocks from Kilgallen’s townhouse, at 2:00 a.m. Recall Western Union manager Dave Spiegel swore Kilgallen called him at 2:20 a.m. This account appears credible and assists with estimating the time Kilgallen died.

  It seems logical to believe Kilgallen placed the call to Spiegel from a hotel pay telephone located near the bar or perhaps a phone brought to her table by the bartender. If so, this means she did not leave the Regency until at least 2:25 a.m. or a bit after. She would not have arrived home, either by walking (highly unlikely), by taxi, limousine, or perhaps in a car, until 2:30 or a bit later if the short trip was delayed.93

  It is important to recall Marc Sinclaire stating that rigor mortis had set in when he discovered her body at a bit after 9:00 a.m. Medical evidence suggests rigor mortis begins two to six hours after someone dies. This means Kilgallen had to have died sometime before 7:00 a.m. since at least two hours had to pass before Sinclaire discovered the body. Recall Dr. Luke concluded that Kilgallen died “between 2 and 4:00 a.m.,” the estimate the Junior medical examiner provided to a newspaper the day after Kilgallen’s death. This could be accurate and if so, then Kilgallen’s blood alcohol content, listed as 0.15 in the autopsy eprort, had to have been much higher when she actually died leading to the conclusion she drank heavily either at the Regency Hotel bar or at the townhouse.

  When asked about Kilgallen’s time of death, Marc Sinclaire stated in his videotaped interview, “I don’t know what time she died.” Regardless, when Kilgallen arrived at the townhouse, she could gain entrance either through the front, or rear door, which led to a garden. Each had old-fashioned locks with the keyhole in the knob. Since the rear entrance was rarely used, Kilgallen most likely entered through the front door.

  There was no parking garage; parking was on the street. Outside the front door was the metal box where Kilgallen apparently left here newspaper columns for pick-up. Somehow, the messenger found the column and delivered it to the Journal-American offices. Recall the afternoon edition of November 8 included it with the notation Kilgallen wrote the column during the early hours. Whether this was true or whether Kilgallen had written the column earlier or later on November 7 for delivery early the next morning is impossible to determine.

  The entrance hall inside the townhouse front door led to the flight of the back stairs and elevator. Next to this room was a poorly lit area where bicycles and sleds were stored.

  Adjacent to the stairs was a doorway leading to the servant’s quarters. A sewing room was n
ext to a long hallway leading to the servant’s small living room. This room included the door to the back yard. Across the way was another door leading to the second floor kitchen. The home staff consisted of James and Evelyn Clement, and Ellen O’Hara, “a stooped, yet dynamically energetic elderly Irish woman.” Kerry Kollmar described her as “the kindest, warmest person in the household of my childhood.”

  Kilgallen’s townhouse directly faced 68th Street second from the corner. From various reports, those at home in the townhouse at the time Kilgallen died included husband Richard, 11-year-old son Kerry, and Ibne Hassan.

  Who may have had keys to the Kilgallen townhouse is anyone’s guess. Both Marc Sinclaire and Charles Simpson had keys. Predictably, the servants did as well as Richard. Whether anyone else had spare keys, no one knows. Ibne Hassan told this author there was a buzzer outside the front door. It rang a bell in the townhouse to alert the presence of a visitor. Whether the buzzer was working during the early morning hours of November 8 is unknown.

  The question remains whether Kilgallen entered the townhouse alone or with a companion who was not a family member, tutor or servant. Several alternatives exist: she left the hotel with someone who then accompanied her into the townhouse before she entered; someone forced her to let him in after she opened the door; or someone was lying in wait inside the townhouse and surprised her when she entered. The latter suggests this person either had a key to the townhouse or picked the lock.

  Two plausible explanations, besides Richard being involved with the possibility of an accidental or accidently on purpose overdose, exist as to how Dorothy Kilgallen’s life ended at the young age of 52. The first is that the barbiturates described by John Broich and Drs. Baden and Hoffman were injected against Kilgallen’s will. The second is that someone forced her to ingest a heavy dose of capsules and perhaps even the vodka causing heart failure due to the dangerous combination of the two.